His son Mohammed lost no time in ascending the throne, removing a slight obstacle, or what might have become one, in the person of Amurath’s infant son by a Servian Princess. The babe was drowned in a bath at the moment when his mother was offering her congratulations to the new Sultan. Mohammed’s subjects failed to see the humorous side of this act of statecraft, and made trouble, so the Sultan put all the blame on the officer who had carried out the order, and had him put to death for treason. Mohammed had to confess to his own share in the deed when, many years later, he included fratricide among the permissible expedients of statesmanship.
Mohammed II lives in history as “The Conqueror,” and he seems to have had all the qualities as well as the good fortune which help mortals to that high title; he had some other qualities which were, if not necessary to success, at least picturesque, and in keeping with the morals and ideals of the time he lived in, and of the peoples with whom he had to deal. He was strong of purpose and far-sighted, ingenious and of tireless energy, and these qualities brought him victory over his enemies in the field and success in the guidance of his people’s life through the dark passages of diplomacy. These qualities shone out into the foreground; in the background were cruelty, perfidy, and a sensuality which revolted even the loose-living warriors of his day.
The West called to Mohammed II; there was yet one more city awaiting conquest by a son of Othman ere the Eastern Empire should pass out of history and the Turk should rule large European provinces from the seat of Constantine. Another, Constantine XI, and last of that long line of Byzantine Emperors, had come to the throne some three years before Mohammed was girt with the sword of Othman. This Constantine was wise, just, and merciful, and has gone down to history among the heroes of the world. But all the noblest qualities united in the person of its Emperor were unable to stem the tide rising up to the walls of Constantinople, were inadequate when opposed to relentless force from without, and supineness, sloth, cowardice, within the City walls. The fate of Constantinople drew nearer, till in May, 1453, the hour had struck, and Mohammed II rode as conqueror over heaps of slain, among whom was the lost Emperor, through the breach in the wall made by his huge cannon and the fiery assaults of the Janissaries, to the deserted palaces of Imperial Byzant.
Thus fell Constantinople, the City of many sieges, into the hands of an Asiatic nation which from here ruled wide tracts of Europe, raiding right up to the gates of Vienna, the Kaiserstadt of the Holy Roman Empire, “Deutscher Nation.” For nearly five centuries an unbroken line of sons of Othman have sat in the seat of Cæsar, have conquered from here, and from here have watched the decay of their power in Europe. One by one young races, reborn after years of slavery, rose and asserted their rights, gained first autonomy, then independence, from a master who seemed but a stranger and a sojourner in the lands of Roum. Now, as I write, those young nations have closed in on every side, and Ottoman possessions in Europe are hardly greater in extent than were those of decadent Byzant when Mohammed II’s artillery thundered outside the walls, brought down those stout defences, and with them an old civilization, in a mass of crumbling ruins.
CHAPTER XII
Islam—And Christianity—Turks and the law of the Prophet—Their relations to the Sultan—Bajazet II and his army—Slavs go over to Islam—The rebellion of Djem—Matthias Corvinus—The growth of Western culture—Jews expelled from Spain—Kemal-Reis and Turkish sea-power—Bajazet and his sons—The revolt of Selim—Selim kills his brothers—Selim defeats Shah Ismail—Selim and his Grand Vizier—Selim defeats the Mamelukes—The death of Selim—Solyman the Great—Contemporary history—The conquest of Rhodes—The invasion of Hungary—Buda-Pesth surrenders—The first siege of Vienna—Sea victories of Barbarossa—Solyman and Roxalana—Solyman’s death.
RELIGION affects the private life of the Turk as also the life of the body politic more than is the case among the followers of other creeds, and Islam is singularly adapted to the sons of Othman, or rather has made them what they are. Mohammed assumed both spiritual and temporal power in the name of a god, who thrones high above the humble faithful, who is so far concerned in each believer that he arranges every detail of his life long before the poor mortal enters upon it. There is no mercy, no departure from the course marked out, no hope of propitiating a stern deity, aloof and vengeful, by prayer and intercession; Islam—obedience, submission. Allah is not often moved by loving-kindness, but anger may rouse him to punish by the hand of his “shadow on earth,” the Caliph-Sultan. He is particularly easily incensed against non-believers, and through his Prophet has promised all happiness after death to those to combat unbelief, and by war and rapine, murder and outrage, proclaim the fact that “La ilaha illa ’Uah!”
